Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-16
THE FOLSOM PRISON INVESTIGATION.

The prison investigation at Folsom has
Come to an end, and verdict has been rem
dered as practically all the people antici-
pated from the close of the first days pro-
ceedings. For il was then unquestionably
shown that not only is there no unusual
or unnecessary severity practiced in pun
lshing incorrigibles at the Folsom prison.
but that on the contrary the punishment is
too mild. The convicts are neither show
cred logged, tied up by the thumbs,
spread by the wrists and ankles, nor nut
into lightless dungeons, as is done in many
prisons maintained by authorities as hui
name and civilized as any They are at
Folsom confined in ordinary cells. cut off
from communication and work with the
main body of convicts for time and their
release Is dependent upon their submission
And 1t Is established by the evidence that
this Is not unjustifiable severity. 1t ought
60 have been held that it is altogether too
light for many of the offenses committed.
The investigation, we said, at the time
OF the preferment of the charges, was
necessary, and 50 it was, hut because i'll
judgment and gross misconccption of official
duty had brought the complaints of GER
tain conGicts to the public ear through the
agency of the press. Had the right pro-
cedure been adopted, the great injury
that has resulted to the disciplinary
system Of the California prisons would
not have followed Had the Director
whose sympathies and susceptibilities we're
80 easily worked upon by the cunning incor-
rigibles, gone straishtway to his colleagues
with the complaints which had been
poured into his ears, and have demanded
an immediate inquiry into the matter, il
could have been had without the sixteen
hundred State prisoners in California be-
ing made the audience in the nil - to the
quasi trial of men put in authority over
them, upon the complaint Of few re-
tractory thieves and desperate murderers,
they had disciplined. Instead of that the
story of " inhumanity was rushed into the
columns OF the sensational press, and the
remarkable spectacle witnessed iInmed;-
ately OF rafting lot of reporters running
Wild through the refractory ward, without
bit or curb to their enthusiasm. to "scoono
rivals, and taking down the sensational
yarns Of convicts, inspired with the hone
OF escape, and demoralized and rendered
doubly intractable by the ease with which
they had gained a hearing before the pub
lie
In all the history of prison management
in the United States or elsewhere, there
never was such an amazing and ''tragically
lpdicrous spectacle 1t is a suggestion to
Gilbert & Sullivan, and will stand for all
time as the most stupendous and serio-
comic drama known to genealogical science.
Its rcsult has been to almost destroy the |
discipline of the prison, and it has made |
the task of keeping the conyicts tretly diff |
ficult and dangerous.
Two stupendous blunders were commit
ted in the outset. First, when complain |
ing Director Filcher permitted his COM |
plant to so into the newspapers prior to !
laying 1t before the Board of which he is |
member, an act open to the suspicion
either OF improper motive, or lack of ca |
pacity. Second, the admission by Warden |
Meoome OF reporters to the refractory
ward, TO whom the desperate men there
confined poured out their stories. which ,
have been found baseless and unworthy of
countenance, but which nevertheless have
had bad disturbing influence upon the
other eonvicts. These two mistakes were
crowned by third, but little less amaz-
ingly strange, and chargeable to the
whole Board. The investigation was so
conducted that every convict in the State
knew precisely what was going on, was
informed as to every detail of testimony,
what was said by every officer, and knew
the verbiage of every criticism made by
every official of the Board upon officers,
prisoners and prison systems.
The idea of examining into the discip
line OF prison and the conduct and man
agement of its officers, and at the same
time OF permitting reports of the proceed
inss, wet from the press, to he distributed
among the prisoners is so exceedingly
amusing and blunderingly dangerous that
it keeps the contemplating vibrating be-
tween mirth and indignation as they re-
feet upon it,
They do things very differently in
Eastern prisons. Imprisonment there is |
punishment; confinement means seques-
irasion from the world, almost wholly.
The oonvicts at Sing Sing, or Moymensing. |
or Jacksonville, or Joliet, do not enjoy
tiie luxury of sensational reporters sitting
al their feet to drink in the tale of their |
woss. and the story of their complaint of |
prison officials. and Euxuriate ia the ad-